On Thursday, the Ultimate Fighting Championship and FOX Sports announced an exclusive two-year distribution agreement to air Octagon programming in Latin America. The deal gives FOX Sports the rights to broadcast UFC content in 18 countries in Latin America, excluding Brazil.

“We felt the time was right to expand in Latin America. We launched with Globosat in Brazil in 2008 and saw the popularity for the sport to explode. We knew we had millions of fans in Latin America and wanted to give them access to content and programming developed exclusively for them,” said UFC president Dana White.

UFC events will be available on FOX Sports, FOX Sports+ and FOX Sports HD. All live events will air on FOX Sports and FOX Sports HD on Saturdays at 10PM (Buenos Aires) and 8PM (Mexico City).

Starting with this Saturday’s “UFC 133: Evans vs. Ortiz” extravaganza, FOX Sports will air 24 live shows per year, along with an active schedule of popular UFC programs including UFC Guerreros*, archive content and historical UFC showdowns.

“We are excited to be able to bring our viewers a front row seat to the fastest growing sport in world,” said Patrick Ilabaca, VP of global marketing and business development for FOX Pan American Sports. “Through our agreement with UFC, mixed martial arts fans throughout Latin America will for the first time be able to watch live UFC events exclusively on FOX Sports, which were traditionally only available on Pay-Per-View.”

In addition, FOX Sports has created a dedicated UFC page on foxsportsla.com which features news, commentary, fight cards and other essential fan information.

*Programming only available in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador until December 31, 2011.